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Hugo Chavez' successor Nicolas Maduro shows himself a pragmatist

By Ginger Thompson and William NeumanThe New York Times

Posted:
03/07/2013 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
03/07/2013 01:27:04 AM MST

CARACAS, Venezuela — In the weeks before his mentor's death, Vice President Nicolas Maduro's imitations of President Hugo Chavez became ever more apparent — the same vocal patterns and speech rhythms, the same themes. He has also adopted Chavez's clothes, walking beside his coffin in an enormous procession Wednesday in a windbreaker patterned after the national colors. Now the big question is whether Maduro will still mirror Chavez — or veer off.

"He can't just stand there and say 'I am the Mini-Me of Chavez and now you have to follow me,' " said Maxwell A. Cameron of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The puzzlement over what sort of leader Maduro will prove to be extends to Washington, where U.S. policymakers have been feeling out Maduro for months, years even, to determine whether he might provide an opening for closer ties between the two nations.

U.S. officials say that Chavez, despite his very public denunciations of Washington, worked behind the scenes to keep trade relations between the two countries, especially in the oil sector, strong. They recalled Wednesday how Chavez once picked up the phone and dialed an American diplomat to talk policy, an odd move for a leader who more than once barred U.S. ambassadors from Caracas and regularly denounced Washington and its leaders, sometimes using barnyard epithets.

"The United States needs to fix this," Chavez said during the call, which concerned the ouster of the Honduran president in 2009. "You are the only ones who can."

Beneath the bluster, American diplomats and analysts said, Chavez could be a pragmatist, albeit a sometimes bombastic one, and they hope Maduro will prove to be even more of one.

"I know Nicolas Maduro well," said William D. Delahunt, a former Massachusetts member of Congress. "I know he's a pragmatist."

The United States reached out to Maduro in November to gauge interest in improving the relationship. He responded positively, and the two nations held three informal meetings in Washington, the last one taking place after it was clear that Chavez's condition was severe, U.S. officials said.

Most diplomats and political analysts agree that the start of the post-Chavez landscape looked bleak, with Maduro accusing the United States of plotting against the country and expelling two American military attaches. However, some observers saw the moves as an overtly calculated — one analyst called it "inelegant" — attempt by Maduro to appeal to Chavez' supporters and propel his own chances of winning an election to succeed him.

But more recently, Maduro has shown himself as a hard-liner, lashing out at his political enemies and lambasting Henrique Capriles Radonski, the state governor he will likely face in the election, for spending time in New York.

"Maduro has to be careful about every step he takes, and every word he utters about the United States," said a senior U.S. official who is closely watching developments. "How he is going to handle that pressure is the big unknown. We're about to find out."

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